Meet our IT Guru Matt!

Hi Matt! How long have you been with Network Automation, Inc? Since September of 2005.

What was your previous occupation before coming here?I was a Journeyman Line Mechanic (I installed/maintained high voltage electrical lines).

Wow, that sounds dangerous! Did anyone ever get hurt? Quite often! In that type of work most of your daily responsibilities include quite a bit of physical risk.

What's the best thing about your current position and why?Well, among the many great things about my job is the exposure I get to the latest and greatest in technology and software. Also, the challenges that come with implementing that new technology as well as the amount of knowledge to be learned in this field will never let me get bored.

If you had a bigger budget what would you do with it?Talk about a kid in a candy store! I would most likely to invest it in more racks, servers, and more uninterruptible power supplies to make our network even more redundant than it already is, or maybe rewire our office with fiber optics.

What's the biggest misconception about your job?Who has a conception about my job? Haha! The misconception that if you work with computers you must be a nerd or a geek comes to mind. I don't really consider myself either so I am going to stick with that.

Do you use AutoMate? If so what do you use it for? Oh do I! Automate relieves me of many routine tasks and ensures they get done accurately and on time leaving me free to cool my heels, (cough, cough), I mean focus on other more important matters. I use it for things like monitoring processes, emailing status alerts, all the way down to simple things like rebooting computers.

Hometown?Santa Clarita, California.

I heard your pretty good with dirt bikes. Can you do any fancy tricks? Nothing too fancy, but I do like ripping it up at the track and hitting some decent jumps.

What do you like best about World of Warcraft? I would have to say the fact that you can meet new people, strategize, and conquer with friends down the street, or across the globe... just a few of the cool features of the game.

Comfort food? Previously I would have said pizza, but now it's Dreyer's Slow Churned Cookie Dough ice cream.

Wait, you have stopped eating pizza? I'm used to seeing you cook pizza on a daily basis. What happened?Well, the "comfort" pizza is not quite the same as the pizza you have seen me eat for lunch. Mine was the "lowfat" "healthy" home made version. The "comfort" pizza would be the greasy, meaty, super cheesy, straight from Pizza Hut style.

In your car CD player?You caught me on this one, Laura Chappell on Network Security. I don't really use the CD player much any more. I use my iPod.

What's the last movie you've seen? It's been a while, but I think "Pirates of The Caribbean Dead Man Chest" was the last one.

"Fantasy" job?One fantasy job would be working for the C.I.A. doing work related to the field I am in now and specializing in security.

Such as dropping down on wires into a server room from a ventilation duct like Tom Cruise in Mission Impossible?I think that may be more Hollywood than real world, but yeah that sounds exciting.

If you were stranded on a desert island and were allotted three items what would they be? Lets see...One billion dollars, book of matches, and an Ultralight (w/gas) to get back home.

When I retire I will....Among many other things, be the owner of multiple properties, relaxing, sitting on a lounge chair with my feet up, sipping on passion fruit ice tea, on the coast of...